The immigration debate needs to shift away from capping numbers to focus on how long work permits are issued for, according to the government’s chief immigration adviser.
PM can also reveal that restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian migrant workers, which are to be reviewed by the end of the year, are unlikely to be lifted in the current climate of rising unemployment.
David Metcalf, chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), the independent panel set up by the government to advise on immigration policy, said it was necessary to think more about the duration of migrants’ stay than whether there should be an annual cap. “It would mean thinking carefully about how long to issue the work permits for,” he added.
Metcalf said net immigration, like unemployment, increased because people remained for longer rather than because more people were coming in.
The Conservatives have called for an annual quota to run alongside the new points-based immigration system, which they say is needed to ensure businesses train the unemployed indigenous population – particularly in an economic downturn.
But the government has insisted it will not impose a cap – despite recent comments by new immigration minister Phil Woolas that there should be an upper limit on the UK’s population.
Metcalf said the government was consulting the MAC on whether to lift the restrictions imposed last year on Bulgaria and Romania when they joined the EU. “Rising unemployment is something we take very seriously and we would not recommend lifting the restrictions if the consequence would be to displace British workers,” he said.
He added that the only “very partial lifting” might be an extension of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme quota, a proportion of which is earmarked for Bulgarian and Romanian workers. The National Farmers’ Union has called for an extension.
Metcalf also told PM that the economic downturn and rising unemployment were not likely to affect the roll out of tier two of the points-based system for skilled non-EU migrants.
He expected the list of occupation shortages, due to be published by the government imminently, to remain almost unchanged from the recommendations made by the MAC last month. The draft list included civil engineers, ship and hovercraft officers, maths and science teachers, and (in Scotland only) fish filleters.
“I don’t think [the list] is going to be changed much by the movements in the economy,” Metcalf said. “We haven’t got construction workers on the list, whereas you would argue they would be affected.
“But if we were to move into a recession and that had implications for certain occupations, such as civil engineering, then we may alter it.
“We want to be helpful to the labour market and to firms but if there was displacement of British workers we would look at that very seriously,” he said.
Low take-up for sponsorship licences
Far fewer companies than expected have applied for sponsorship licences to recruit non-EU skilled migrants under tier two of the new points-based system. The Home Office estimates that 1,016 licences have so far been granted – well short of initial expectations of 18,000-20,000. The deadline was 30 September and any received since are not guaranteed to be processed in time for the roll out of the system at the end of November.
Julia Onslow-Cole, head of global immigration at PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal, told PM the low take-up was because firms did not have the “robust HR processes” in place to gain a licence. “Lots of firms don’t have a good grasp of how many non-EU migrants they have,” she said. She added that others had not applied because they expected to be able to recruit all staff through tier one of the system, for highly skilled migrants, which does not require sponsorship. But she warned this meant risking losing out on overseas talent.
The Home Office said the number of licences was “ever changing” and “every effort would be made to process the applications as quickly as possible”.